India’s Wholesale Inflation Moderates To 1.31% In Aug

Driven by the slowdown in food and fuel prices, India’s wholesale inflation in August 2024 eased to a four-month low on an annual basis. As per the official data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the country’s wholesale inflation fell to 1.31 per cent in August 2024. The same figure was recorded at negative 0.46 per cent in August 2023.

The inflation in fuel and power turned negative in August and registered deflation at negative 0.67 per cent compared with a 1.72 per cent rise in July, as per the data from the Centre. The food prices, which make up a key indicator, reported a slowdown and came in at 3.26 per cent in August 2024, against 3.55 per cent in July 2024.

The month-over-month change in WPI for the month of August 2024 stood at negative 0.45 per cent. A poll by Reuters had expected the wholesale inflation to moderate to 1.85 per cent.

As far as the retail inflation is concerned, India saw its retail inflation inch up to 3.65 per cent in August 2024, as the food and vegetable prices remained elevated. The centre attributed the positive inflation rate to the rise in the prices of food articles, manufacture of textiles and manufacture of machinery and equipment in August 2024.

The inflation rate for primary articles for WPI stood at 2.42 per cent in August as compared to 3.08 per cent in July 2024. On the other hand, there was a slowdown in the inflation of manufactured products which came down to 1.22 per cent in August as compared to 1.58 per cent in July 2024.

The WPI food index, consisting of food articles from the primary articles group among others came down to 193.2 in August 2024 from 195.4 in July 2024. This decline led to a dip in the annual rate of inflation based on the WPI food index.